It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, January 22nd. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by Visit Casper. Visit Casper invites you to come enjoy the Casper International Film Festival, January 31 through February 2. A broad range of films from local and international filmmakers will be shown. Learn more and get your tickets at visitcasper.com.
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At least two Wyoming residents are included under President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon of about 1,500 people charged and prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
69-year-old Douglas Harrington of Bedford and 30-year-old Laramie resident August Garcia both benefited from Trump’s pardon issued Monday, despite the differences in the severity of the charges against them.
While Garcia was charged with less violent conduct, Harrington was convicted of multiple offenses after breaking a police officer’s wrist with a flagpole. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to that officer on Tuesday.
“He gave me just a detailed account of holding the line, holding up the baton to stop the flagpole, getting his wrist broken. He served for another six to eight hours on scene. I asked him, I said, Why didn't you, you know your wrist was broken, you felt the burning, you felt the tingling. Why didn't you bail? And he said… you don't sacrifice your fellow officers because of an arm.”
Wyoming’s senior U.S. Senator John Barrasso said he didn’t agree with each of Trump’s pardons, but he said that the vast majority of these cases are for simple trespass or picketing without a permit.
Read the full story HERE.
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Following Monday’s subzero surge that saw temperatures plummet to minus 20-40 across much of Wyoming, the state was hit Tuesday by strong winds as the latest winter weather system makes its exit.
Winds gusting nearly 90 mph in some places have been blowing over semitrailers along Interstates 25 and 80, and Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that wind gusts in many areas topped 70 mph., with one gust south of Wheatland reported at 88 mph.
“This is an actual phenomenon called a Chinook wind. And what that means is, when the temperature rises suddenly, that creates the kind of weather conditions that generate really strong winds. So when you go from Sub Zero to not even zero, like freezing point, just a rapid rise in temperature, you get these strong winds. And Wyoming's already geographically built like a wind tunnel. So it's the perfect conditions for these perfect storms of really powerful wind gusts.”
The Chinook winds dominating Tuesday should be gone by Thursday. However, Wyomingites shouldn’t rest on their laurels at this time of year. By the weekend, temperatures will drop again as another weather system brings clouds, cold and higher chances of snow across Wyoming.
Read the full story HERE.
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A State Representative from Sheridan is proposing legislation that would finally clear up what she says is a confusing Wyoming law on filling political vacancies at all levels in the state.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that the ambiguity of the current law has led to frustration and multiple lawsuits over the way county commissioners have interpreted the law to fill vacant seats. Representative Laurie Bratten’s bill is particularly timely, considering the issues Park County is currently facing in filling their vacant County Assessor seat.
“The Park County Commissioners believe the local County Republican Party did an incorrect voting process when selecting nominees, so they sent the decision to pick a nominee for their new county assessor to a judge. What Representative Bratten’s bill would do is basically take away the power of commissioners to send that decision to a judge and send it back to the state or local party to decide themselves who the nominee is going to be… this would really kind of clear up what should be done while when there's kind of an issue with the candidates or the voting process or anything else.”
House Bill 176 has not been referred to a committee yet, but Bratten said when it is, she expects significant public testimony.
Read the full story HERE.
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The UPS service known as SurePost was primarily something businesses used as an economic way to send less urgent packages, like a shirt or a pair of shoes from a retailer. Under the arrangement, the U.S. Postal Service would deliver the last mile of those UPS packages.
Now that the SurePost contract has expired and the Postal Service is not interested in renewing it, UPS says it will handle delivery of these rural packages door to door. And although deliveries might now come faster, Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that they could be more expensive.
“UPS is going to take over about 3 million packages, but that's not going to include the PO Box packages, right? So you know, door to door delivery, you're either not going to be able to put in a post office box, or if that's what you want, you're going to have to select USPS ground advantage instead of UPS. This could speed up some package deliveries… They cut the middle man out. But, you know, it could get more costly too.”
Many of Wyoming’s towns are so small all they have are P.O. boxes. In the short-run, that could mean lots of small Wyoming towns with packages being returned by the armload, while all the SurePost deliveries work their way through the system.
Read the full story HERE.
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Unless something is done, Wyoming risks its prized trout fishing rivers turning into aquatic mosh pits, like those in Colorado and Montana.
That’s what some anglers told lawmakers during a meeting of the Wyoming House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that House Bill 5 would give the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission authority to regulate commercially guided fishing.
“We're hearing more and more from people that the rivers are starting to get crowded in Wyoming… a lot of the folks that are showing up here are guides, or people calling themselves guides, just taking a buddy fishing. And because there's no regulation on that, hunting guiding is is regulated in Wyoming, fishing guiding is not. And because of that lack of regulation… these out of staters are bringing in their clients and just bringing more and more mobs of people under the river, which is driving down the quality of the fishing here. And so they're asking the the legislature to, you know, put some kind of regulation on it.”
The committee used up its allotted time listening to testimony about the bill Tuesday, and so took no action on it. The committee plans to take the bill up again Thursday.
Read the full story HERE.
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A woman died of apparent gunshot wounds in a Gillette emergency room Monday night.
The Gillette Police Department responded to a report of gunshots, and officers arrived on scene to find an adult female with multiple gunshot wounds. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland spoke to the county coroner, who confirmed that the victim was 33-year-old Haleigh Martinez.
“The police call stemmed from a Gillette residence. She died within about 20 minutes of the call, like 8:30-ish at the emergency department, and police arrested a man … who was at the scene, but they were not confirming who he was or his relationship to her, even though the jail log says someone was booked on second degree murder.”
Gillette PD Deputy Chief Brent Wasson declined to comment further when reached by Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. That includes who the suspect is and what alleged charges he was arrested for.
Read the full story HERE.
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On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which will eliminate federal incentives for green energies.
Despite that order, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is requesting approval from the Wyoming Legislature for a 108% rate hike from energy producers on their emissions, which includes carbon dioxide.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that without the requested rate increase, the DEQ’s revenue will take a serious hit.
“Because of former President Joe Biden's rules, as far as emission outputs, a lot of these companies in Wyoming were legitimately reducing their emissions ... it's an interesting situation where the DEQ basically, even though Trump has taken office again, they don't really expect these lower emissions to go back up. That's kind of what's going on here. And they're kind of expecting a decreased revenue for the foreseeable future.”
Pete Obermueller, executive director of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily that members of his organization aren’t opposed to paying the higher fees, but would prefer a more incremental rate increase, rather than suddenly doubling them.
Read the full story HERE.
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Landlords are dealing with rapid growth in the exploding business of online certification of emotional support animals. Landlords are suspicious of these websites, worried they’ve become an unfair way to force property managers to accept tenants with pets.
The Montana legislature is considering a bill that would tighten the rules governing the certification of emotional support animals. But Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that it’s even easier to get certification in Wyoming than it is in Montana.
“Getting a certified letter stating that you need an emotional support animal, which will allow you to have an animal in your rental property is just a few clicks away… It comes with official evaluation that you can present to a landlord and be able to retain your pet in a rental property. In Montana, it's a lot harder, where you've got to have a 30 day relationship with some kind of therapist or health care provider in order to get that kind of letter. But in Wyoming, you can do it with a few clicks… the new legislators right now in Montana are looking for ways to tighten the language around the emotional support statute… to make sure that landlords are able to say no when there are really extreme situations like, say, a pony in a in a studio apartment.”
Senate Bill 149 remains tied up in Montana’s Senate Judiciary Committee, and the sponsor of the bill doesn’t anticipate much opposition when it gets a committee hearing.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel! Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
